Crusaders fall to Cadets in frenetic finish

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Trinity Catholic and St. Joseph football teams played a wild second half on Saturday, Oct. 9.

After the score was tied 14-14 at halftime, the teams combined for 77 points in the second half with the Cadets emerging with a 55-50 home victory over the Crusaders in Trumbull.

"The game became its own animal," Trinity head coach Pete Stokes explained. "After halftime, it was like a NASCAR race."

The teams combined for 921 yards, including 497 by St. Joseph, and Cadets quarterback Joe Della Vecchia threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more.

"I didn't wake up on Saturday and think we'd put 50 on St. Joe's," Stokes said. "At the same time, I didn't think they'd score 50 on us.

"We need to play better defense and we will," Stokes added.

Leading the way for Trinity (1-3) was senior running back Mike Rivas, who rushed for 97 yards and scored four touchdowns. He also had 90 yards on kickoff returns.

Rivas has been dealing with a foot injury and wasn't at 100 percent, according to Stokes. That didn't stop him from having a good day.

Shaquan Howsie found the end zone twice and wideout Shawn Robinson scored his first touchdown of the season on a 61-yard pass from quarterback Patrick Murphy.

"We've been waiting four weeks for a play like that," Stokes said of Robinson's touchdown, which gave the Crusaders a 44-41 lead with 8:51 remaining in the game.

St. Joseph then scored on its next two possessions.

"It came down to whoever had the ball last was going to win," Stokes said.

Trinity cut the lead to five after a 22-yard touchdown run by Howsie. The Cadets were looking to run out the clock after that and were faced with a fourth-and-one with 2:49 left in the game.

Della Vecchia was stopped on the initial run, according to Stokes, but somehow he escaped and picked up the first down as the Cadets came away with the victory.

Tre Crumbley (running back/saftey) and PJ Tusch (offensive/defensive lineman) didn't play against St. Joseph due to hamstring and head injuries, respectively, and Stokes was unsure of their status for Trinity's next game. Offensive/defensive lineman Chris Neuscheler has been nursing a knee injury.

Stokes praised the play of Murphy, who saw time at safety with Crumbley out, Sean Baranowski, Charlie Bradley and Danny Pason on the offensive line.

The Crusaders were faced with another tough opponent when they hosted Darien, which has one of the best defenses in the conference, on Saturday.

"Darien will be a good test," Stokes said. "It's going to tell us where we stand."

STAMFORD

Despite having two of the best linebackers in the state a year ago, in Khairi Fortt and Patrick Atkinson, both of whom took their talents to Division 1 schools, the Black Knights of Linebacker High seemed to deliver even more punishing hits than last year's duo.

The Knights brought out a number of reactions from the home crowd by laying out Norwalk players all over Boyle Stadium during their 27-6 win.

Simply put, Stamford fans can expect a lot more hitting as this season goes on.

"I've been here (with the program) for eight years and it's been a long time since we've been able to say we came out and smacked a team in the mouth like that," said head coach Bryan Hocter, whose team moved to 2-2 heading into Week 5's home game against Danbury. "To be honest with you, that's our formula. I set the tone early on, right after I got the job. We have to be physical. We have to play old-school football. That's my way."

The players are buying into it.

"Hoc's a defensive guy and he's pushing for the physicality out there," said junior linebacker Matt Corcoran. "Our D-line is doing a great job holding people up and creating gaps for us and we're just going to run all day and hit people. Our linebackers are enjoying that."

Corcoran is joined in this year's linebacking corps by seniors Shawn Maignan and Josh Buffalo and sophomore Frankie Colandro, who has impressed people despite his first-year varsity status.

"I was a sophomore last year with Khairi and Patrick and it's nice to play outside of their shadow," said Corcoran. "I'm pretty sure all the others feel the same, too. There's a lot of emphasis on the LBs and I'm really proud of that."

Add it all up and the Black Knights are going to leave teams black and blue.

WESTHILL

The Vikings dropped their third straight game, suffering a 38-0 loss to FCIAC power Staples last Saturday in Westport.

Head coach Dick Cerone said despite the score, he saw a lot of fight from his young team.

"We're trying to get better so we challenged our kids and, honestly, I thought they responded okay," he said. "You can't be happy losing 38-0 but our kids fought."

It was the third consecutive top-notch opponent for the Vikings, who also lost to Trumbull and Trinity Catholic.

"They're pretty good," Cerone said of the Wreckers. "They execute and they don't make many mistakes. Marce (Petroccio) has built a great program here and we try to come into games like this and compete and try to get better."

Some highlights from the game for Westhill included sophomore punter Yveson Cassamajor, who booted a 77-yard punt, senior running back Zack Emilcar, who rushed for 53 yards on 16 carries and he also caught four passes for 24 yards and junior quarterback Peter Cernansky, who was 6-of-11 passing for 35 yards.

Senior two-way starter Chris Robinson suffered a neck injury against the Wreckers and his status for Westhill's next game had yet to be determined. Cerone said after the game he didn't think the injury was serious.

The Vikings hosted Bridgeport Central on Saturday.

"This is a gauntlet for us," Cerone said. "There's no easy week in this league. We need to let people know we'll hit them and we did that a little bit better today."

KING

Head coach Dan Gouin said that even though the Vikings were dealt a 34-6 loss at the hands Hopkins last Saturday at home, he saw some positive signs of growth from his young team.

"We're a lot better than we were the previous weeks," he said. "Our biggest problem is our youth."

With sophomores making up the bulk of the team, King (0-3) has been going through some growing pains.

"It takes time for them to learn how to play the game," Gouin said.

While the Vikings are young, Hopkins has a senior-laden squad and it used its experience to its advantage against King.

"They are battle-tested and been through a lot over the past few years," Gouin said.

After looking over film of the game, Gouin saw some bright spots.

"We're just a step or two away from turning things around," Gouin said. "We'll do better against Kingswood-Oxford."

In the game against Hopkins, Joey Santoro had another solid outing with 164 yards rushing and he scored King's lone touchdown on a 57-yard run. Wideouts Logan McCullough and Andrew McAllister each had two catches and quarterback Kevin Peabody was 8-of-16 passing for 85 yards and two interceptions.

On defense, Mikey Serricchio finished with 18 tackles and Nick Della Jacono, who is only a freshman, also had double-digit tackles.

King played at Kingswood-Oxford on Saturday.

"If we can eliminate the mistakes, we'll have a good chance to win," Gouin said.